New gun legislation DOA? What does anyone expect in a nation that has a deep-rooted history of gun ownership and individual right to bear arms? Existing laws need only to be enforced and mental illness identified and treated. There is no need for universal background checks and even having them will do nothing against those with no criminal record that are mentally deranged. Criminals also would benefit from new laws as they always know how and where to buy guns illegally. Besides, there are no real "assault weapons" for sale at any gun store in America. Only single-shot sporters and tac shotguns, auto-pistols, and scary-looking .22s!!! None are fully automatic, nor combat ready in the true sense. If so there would be TMPs, submachine guns, true assault rifles, and machine guns for sale. Those are already illegal and even Hellfire switches are 100% legal with the BATF. It tries to provide the sense of full-auto fire, but you still have to pull the trigger continuously and fire any rifle with it from the hip which means it is inaccurate in the extreme. I hate to say it but Giffords is a hypocrite. She and her husband own auto pistols and fire them. If she hates guns so much she should tell her husband to get rid of their Glocks (for a start) instead of giving interviews with them on CNN! Besides, she could have been shot in the head with a MORE POWERFUL hunting rifle acting as sniper in .300, .308, or .338LM!!! She would be dead and same for a shotgun blast to the face. IMO, she's an idiot as is anyone who blames an inanimate object for a person's psychotic actions. No gun fires itself nor plots to kill scores of people in a movie theater, mall, or elementary school.

Btw, I am NOT on the NRA side but just support the right to bear arms, which is Constitutional. I agree that this nation has a history of gun making and ownership, but disagree with the NRA on the types sold in modern times that do not come from the US but from the Second and Third Reichs. Those are German weapons designed to kill scores of people. THEY invented: the auto pistol, the first true SMG, the first double-action auto pistol, the assault rifle, and the hand-held grenade launcher. The US invented sniping with hunting rifles, the Old West repeaters, carbines, and Gatling Gun, the Colt Peacemaker, the M1911A, the Thompson SMG, and a ton of shotguns. THOSE the NRA can claim. If the NRA truly followed US historical lines then the only guns available at the gun store would be: wheel gun pistols, only American brand auto-pistols mainly by Colt, hunting shotguns, hunting rifles, and .22 pistols and rifles. It's pretty obvious what the effect of German gun development has done to the world. And it continues as Rheinmetall develops a plasma weapon! What will the NRA do when that thing or a polyslug-thrower, or flechette-firing rifle, caseless weapon, or powerband weapon hits the battlefield? Claim that those weapons are covered by the 2nd Amendment too???